Chennai-based freight-forwarding startup FreightBro Logistics Pvt. Ltd announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with the Port of Wilhelmshaven in Germany as its official digital partner. The aim of the partnership is to facilitate trade and the digital transformation of shipping at the German port, the company said in a statement.

The partnership deal, inked late last month, will make Port of Wilhelmshaven the first port to be a part of FreightBro’s ecosystem of shipping lines, transporters, insurance companies, trade and finance entities. The deal also promises both the port and the freight forwarding platform access to each other’s markets, the statement added.

Port of Wilhelmshaven is a significant channel of energy supply to Germany as it is a central trans-shipment location for petroleum products, chemical products, coal and crude oil. It is part of the country’s largest harbour project, JadeWeserPort.

FreightBro claims to be India’s first freight-forwarding platform. The startup aims to digitise the manual processes in logistics of the trillion-dollar forwarding industry, the company said in a statement. It provides a digital platform to freight forwarders to facilitate faster procurement, reduce operational efficiencies, and aid decision-making by leveraging data analytics, the statement added.

Speaking on the partnership, V Anand Babu, Head of Partnerships and Co-founder of FreightBro, said, “We are glad to have partnered with Port of Wilhelmshaven as this will be an exciting opportunity for us to explore the waterfront terminals and ports to enhance & implement digitisation and automation in the freight forwarding industry.”

This deal comes on the back of another recently announced off-shore association. In June, the National Association of Freight and Logistics (NAFL), Dubai signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with FreightBro. The partnership will enable FreightBro to offer its services to over 400 of NAFL’s members.